Working on a New Project

I’ve mentioned for that a few years ago I struggled through a draft of a novel that I can best describe as an overwrought disappointment that I poured my heart and soul into. That was the summer of 2015, and I have not read a word of that awful draft since then. Other than my thesis, it is the biggest project I ever worked on, and if I can’t even manage to open it up to sift through the trash for an accidental nugget of adequacy, then nobody is ever, ever going to read it.

I tried slathering the draft in fish guts and throwing it into the ocean, but the sharks didn’t eat it and just said I used too many adverbs

But, after 3 years of avoiding fiction entirely, I’m starting something new. I’ve been wanting to work on a longer project. Writing posts here is fun, and it’s more rewarding than any conversation I had in a writing workshop, but I want to see what happens if I try writing another book.

It won’t necessarily be all fiction. I’m planning something that kind of moves from a consistent fiction narrative to little non-fiction essays used to add some meaning to the fiction, or more than was already there. Also there’s gonna be dragons because it’s a thing I’m writing. It’ll probably turn out kind of like a cake on one of those amateur baking shows. I’ll have this perfect, vibrant picture in my mind, and all anyone will ever see will be a slightly sagging tower of poorly frosted eggless failure. But I’m excited to try.

My muse

So, for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be working on that while I write here. That mostly just means I’ll complain about it a lot and maybe take a day off occasionally if I want to have a little more time to hate myself, my writing, and every decision that has led me here.

I’ll let you all know how it goes once I’m further along than an outline.

I thought I recognized that name and looked her up. Turns out I’ve been using one of her essays to teach for a few years and never looked up the rest of her work, even though I really dig that essay. Thank you!